The Kingdom of Voor and the Voorish Sign

The Voor is best known through the works of Arthur Machen, and even more, through H.P. Lovecraft, who borrowed the word from him. 

An illustration by Virgil Finlay,
evocative of Arthur Machen's works.

Lovecraft mentions the Voorish Sign, without describing it, but readers of Colin Wilson, David Langford & Robert Turner's Necronomicon: The Book of Dead Names, have since learned that in it, a Sign of Voor is presented, presumably the same. It is none other than the Mano Cornuta or "sign of the horns" from ancient European folklore and witchery: 

Its use is scarcely discussed in the Necronomicon, save as part of various rituals and, in some instances, as an aid to perceive unseen entities: 

"Great Cthulhu, in fact, like all the Other Gods when they enter our world and like those beings spawened by them among us, is invisible to our eyes and doth become visibile solely if he wills it so or when constrained by the Voorish Sign and with the powder of Ibn Ghazi." 

-From Pietro Pizzari's partial translation of a Greek Necronomicon

Whether this symbol is truly described in Dr. John Dee's fabled Liber Logaeth, or the authors -known to be well-versed in the occult- drew it from some other source, the attribution is quite fitting, actually.  

The term Voor is found also in The Green Book, the strange journal of an unidentified young girl which Arthur Machen reproduces in its entirety in his story "The White People" (1904), from which these passages are drawn: 

"Then beyond the woods there were other hills round in a great ring, but I had never seen any of them; it all looked black, and everything had a voor over it. It was all so still and silent, and the sky was heavy and grey and sad, like a wicked voorish dome in Deep Dendo." 

"...and I thought I must have really found the end of the world, because it was like the end of everything, as if there could be nothing at all beyond, except the kingdom of Voor, where the light goes when it is put out, and the water goes when the sun takes it away. I began to think of all the long, long way I had journeyed..."

"I saw the terrible voor again on everything, for though the sky was brighter, the ring of wild hills all around was still dark, and the hanging woods looked dark and dreadful, and the strange rocks were as grey as ever..."

How, you may ask, is this in any way related to the Mano Cornuta? 

I will now quote Nigel Aldcroft Jackson, who used to excel as an author of books and essays about Witchcraft and Cuning Craft: 

"...The Volta may be defined as a leaping forth by going backwards to the root and depth of Pure Consciousness, that pre-conceptual, unconditioned Reality which is the 'Great Voor'. The 'Great Voor' (a word related to the Germanic 'Fur', Anglo-Saxon 'Fore', Dutch 'Voor') signifies quite literally 'That Which Was Afore'. This is the unconditioned continuum of the Empty Source, the Reality anterior to the veiling manifestation of phenomena which is attained by the 'Way of Night and Reversal'. 

"The Dark Satyr or Man-in-Black of the Voorish Sabbath is to be linked with the Egyptian god Sutekh, the Yezidic divinity Shaitain-e-Bezork or Lasifarus [Lucifer]. The Backwards Dance which he leads may be profitably compared with an obscure Yezidic New Year ritual, in which the priest circumambulates the tomb of Sheikh Adi widdershins on all fours, draped in the horned hide of a goat. Thematically related is the concept of Paravritti (Complete Reversal) in Tibetan Tantrik praxis, the 'Ulta Sadhana' of Kaulachara. 

"The Pure Reality is also synonymous with the all-expansive body of the 'Voor Mother', the Void-Goddess Nocticula-Herodia, the Black Mother of Night and the Sabbath's Empress, as it is with the fathomless emptiness of her witch-cauldron, the hallowed womb-vessel." 

-Nigel Aldcroft Jackson, 

"How to Leap Forth while Standing Still"
(I confess I lack further data about the source of the previous fragment; 
I've just found it among my printed and written notes)  

As you see, this term, as used in Witchcraft (rituals of which are clearly described in The Green Book), refers to the “Voor-world” of “Fore-world”, that which lies in the fore, unconcealed by the realm of appearances of our physical world; it is the ultimate reality behind, over, through all things, and is reached through Elphame, through the openings in the hollow hills that lead to the realm of the Fae, and beyond; indeed, through openings in reality itself. This is the whiteness of the world beyond, shapeless yet the place where all shapes are born.  

Jackson's second paragraph explains the connection of the Voor to the Witch-Master, the Horned God of Witchcraft and Lord of the Sabbath, who is evoked of old with the Mano Cornuta; therefore, to call this hand sign the Sign of Voor or Voorish Sign is perfectly fitting. 

The mention of "the Voorish Sabbath" may appear confusing to some. I will attempt to clarify it with the aid of anthropologist Mircea Eliade, who has some great insights to offer, along with some other ideas. 

Eliade, in his book  Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions, briefly analyzes the Witches' Sabbath, comparing it -as he is wont to do- with rituals from cultures the world over. I will quote briefly from various parts in order to summarize the concepts, so bear with me if I juggle his arguments a bit. 

The general pattern in the Sabbath (keep in mind he is working from folklore and historical accounts, not from the Neo-Pagan ritual, which is quite different; think more along the lines of Charles G. Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of Witches) is practised within an enclosure or cave -I know, I know, like I said Eliade works from certain sources-, starting with the invocation of ancient deities or spirits, followed by the circumambulation (a widdershins walk, an important detail that slipped by Eliade) and then snuffing all the lights and sexual intercourse in the darkness. I would add that this is still done, although the sexual part is usually in private or in rituals performed by a couple, not necessarily the orgies of myth; and that this is also the moment when magick and spells are done. 

Illustration by Stephanie Houser.

"The ceremonies clearly refer to a return to precosmic time, to the time of sacred wholeness" -says Eliade; the participants go back "to the primal age (which is to say, pre-cosmogonic). Rules and interdictions are suspended, for the world has ceased to exist. As they await the new creation the community abides close to the deity, more precisely, abides within the whole primitive deity. The orgy takes place in accordance with divine commandments, and those who partake of it recober in themselves the wholeness of the divinity." What occurred here is that the widdershins walk is a return, counterclockwise, against the direction of the Sun, and therefore a symbolic going back to its source, to Eliade's "magical time" before the formation of the cosmos. The Voor-world in some ways (altrhough the Voor encompasses more than this). A similar concept is found in the dark winter days of misrule. In this moment of return to darkness and chaos before the cosmos is formed cand established, sacred sex equals partaking of the moment of creation, and magick is done because it is the moment when the patterns of events and reality may be re-weaved, redirected before they coalesce. In essence, the programming of the cosmos is subtly rewritten. "It was not mere carnal desire that spurred countrywomen to become witches," Eliade points out, "but the obscure hope that, by breaking the sexual taboos and participating in 'devilish' orgies, they could somehow transform their own condition." 

However, this is but the symbolic interpretation of a version of the ceremony; the flight to the True Sabbath or spirit flight occurs in an entirely different plane from the physical, and in a deeper, more real world than that shared mindscape commonly known as the astral plane; here is a basic description by Robin Artisson that may convey some sense of this concept. The Sabbatic flight leads the soul to the Voorish realm where the Pale People, the White People, dwell; the furthest reaches of Elphame. More cannot be said, but Arkham witch Keziah Mason wrote of it in her Book of Shadows, which is currently in possesion of her descendant Patricia Mason: 

"...and tonight, when I followed the Master, his black shape sped before me amid the whiteness of fear." 

I leave you with this haunting work produced by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, inspired in Keziah Mason's legend, with the amazing artist Alaine Kashian interpreting her role.